For many years, Christianity has been utilized as a political tool, rather than a religious practice. It is time for people of all faiths to reclaim the language of morality and faith. The Rev. Dr. Shannon Fleck is an Oklahoma native who took on the role as Executive Director of the Oklahoma Faith Network … Continue reading “A Reclamation”
There are many reasons to get involved in the church-and to avoid it. For some of us church has basically become a “job.” For others, church is something that is done for us. But what if we viewed church differently-as an opportunity to be co-creators of a spiritual home? We begin this service with a … Continue reading “Spilling Love All Around Us?”
Rev. Sue’s sermon lifts up the idea of families as systems, and how they shape our relationships, including those within the church. She’ll share a few stories of how Family Systems Theory has informed her own life and ministry, and discuss the implications for congregational life here at First Unitarian. (Please note: This will be … Continue reading “Knowing Our Families, Knowing Our Church”
For this multigenerational service, we remember some of the women who have shaped our Unitarian Universalist faith. These include Julia Ward Howe, who first envisioned Mothers’ Day as a day of peace, and the Rev. Maja Capek, a Czech Unitarian minister, and co-creator of the Flower Ceremony (sometimes known as Flower Communion) with her husband … Continue reading Roots of our Faith: Mothers’ Day and the Flower Festival
You might call this my “icebreaker sermon.” Looking back on my life, I realize that much of it has been experimental. One of those experiments involved leaving UU ministry for two years, and going to live in a women’s monastic community. Why did I do this, what did I learn – and what led me … Continue reading “What I Learned from the Sisters”
Direct link to YouTube stream HERE. From two different cultures come two different concepts of mysterious powers. From Spain, especially from the writings of Federico Garcia Lorca, comes the idea of duende, a powerful force of passion and vulnerability, that seems to rise from the Earth itself and that is utterly dependent on an awareness … Continue reading “Duende and Puhpowee: On Answering Your Calling”
Direct link to YouTube stream HERE. St. Teresa of Avila was a Carmelite nun and mystic. Her writings are considered to be classics of the contemplative tradition. In “The Interior Castle,” she writes about two forms of inspiration or transcendence. One is like a basin that is filled from an outside source: this basin represents … Continue reading “Water from the Source: On Mysticism”
Direct link to YouTube stream HERE. Gnosticism was an ancient heresy in the early Christian church. Among its primary tenets was the idea that secret knowledge could unlock the “divine spark” within human beings. As a movement, Gnosticism was obliterated by the official Church, yet threads of Gnostic thought persist even now. What insights might … Continue reading “Well, Whaddya Know: On Gnosticism”
Direct link to YouTube stream HERE. Jewish scripture tells of the time when Moses first received the Ten Commandments but shattered the tablets upon which they were written when he saw his people worshipping an idol. Those broken pieces were placed in the Ark, along with the second set of (unbroken) tablets. But why? What … Continue reading “Holy, Broken Pieces”
Direct link to YouTube stream HERE. UUs are often drawn to the world of ideas but some of us find we cannot get out of our heads. This service explores what it means to think too much and how we can live more fully engaged with other dimensions of our being. Lay leaders: Lori Jervis … Continue reading “On Overthinking”
